No more fire in the kitchen: Cities are banning natural gas in homes to save the planet

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

SAN FRANCISCO – Fix global warming or cook dinner on a gas stove?

That’s the choice for people in 13 cities and one county in California that have enacted new zoning codes encouraging or requiring all-electric new construction.

The codes, most of them passed since June, are meant to keep builders from running natural gas lines to new homes and apartments, with an eye toward creating fewer legacy gas hookups as the nation shifts to carbon-neutral energy sources.

For proponents, it's a change that must be made to fight climate change. For natural gas companies, it's a threat to their existence. And for some cooks who love to prepare food with flame, it's an unthinkable loss.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/no-more-fire-in-the-kitchen-cities-are-banning-natural-gas-in-homes-to-save-the-planet/ar-BBWy226?li=BBnbcA1

Wonder what the remodel will cost. San Francisco is not a cheap place to live.

[PupCamo]

1. it sounds like the ban is only on new construction

The building codes apply only to new construction beginning in 2020, so they aren’t an issue for anyone in an already-built home.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Yet..... n/t

[hlthe2b]

2. Oh my.. HGTV and all those shows with people DEMANDING gas stoves are going to have

a rude awakening!

Are they going to outlaw outdoor bbq grills too?

[unc70]

4. Gas is really bad for lungs

People who grow up in homes with gas cooking have significantly more respiratory problems than those using electric. Effect continues all through life. Causality is so strong it should have led to banning gas stoves. But "chefs" really prefer gas over electric; possibly have lung problems as a result.

[defacto7]

5. We need more solar cookers anyway.

It's a little hard to do Cream of Wheat at midnight but BBQ by the sun is great.

[diane in sf]

6. Induction ranges are supposed to be pretty responsive, unlike standard electric burners.

[diane in sf]

7. Apparently faster and more energy efficient than gas!

https://www.bobvila.com/articles/induction-vs-gas/

“...Induction cooking uses magnetic fields to generate heat, which can be introduced and adjusted instantly. As a result, you can get a pot of water to a rolling boil much more quickly than with the thermal conductivity provided by gas or electric ranges. Induction cooking is fast, responsive, and precise, which makes it popular with professional chefs and home cooks alike. Because heat is created immediately in cookware through induction, “food heats up and water boils 50 percent faster on induction cooktops when compared to electric or gas cooktops,” according to Frigidaire, one of the country’s leader’s in induction technology....

Induction stoves are more energy-efficient than gas or electric options.
As the gas flame or electrical coils on a traditional range transfers heat to cookware, there’s ample opportunity for heat loss into the air. There’s far less energy loss on an induction cooktop, because cookware heats as a reaction to the electromagnetic forces created by the induction burner. In fact, up to 90 percent of the energy produced on an induction range is transferred to food, compared to about 74 percent on a traditional electric range, and 40 percent on a gas range, according to a study published in the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy’s Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings. As a bonus, virtually no heat loss in induction cooking means your kitchen won’t feel uncomfortably hot during cooking....”

I’ve always thought if I installed a mother-in-law unit, I’d install a two burner induction range. A tenant would be less likely to blow up the house or melt pots, and the flat surface is easy to clean.

[flotsam]

8. Jesus people, two syllables-Pro pane...

Here in New England electricity costs like you were buying plutonium (though prices are now declining) and heating costs are brutal. Like normal folk here the choices are electric or gas or oil but gas means propane except in select urban (comparatively) areas. My home city is 50K people with not a single gas line to be found. When I bought my home (A double wide mobile) I had electric, oil heating, and a propane stove. As I got older, my furnace did also and when it died I replaced it with a propane furnace and kissed dirty, smelly, fuel oil that gelled at the very worst times (as in at -10 degrees furnace failure sucks) goodbye. The point here being that electric heat costs would render the state unlivable. Actually propane costs more than fuel oil per BTU but the real return comes in how clean and quiet the system is. Just saying all modern gas stoves can run on propane as easily as on natural gas-up here they normally come with one set of jets (the orifices required depending on the gas used) installed and the 5-7 alternate jets in the info pack included. Gas lines are nice but I get their point-we tend to protect sunk costs (gas feed from street to house) but if flame cooking is your thing then you are just a jet change, a propane tank, and a copper supply line away.

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. I don't think switching from methane to the more carbon-intense propane is the solution

for anything. Unless your idea is to "stick it to the environment. And the libs."

[Boomer]

9. Pushback on minor inconveniences...

is just a preview of the pushback that will arise over major policy changes that affect everyone's lives and livelihoods. Assuming we ever get that far.